TALK RADIO WATCH

Are liberals a 'degenerative disease'?

Kathy Shaidle is a blogging pioneer whose FiveFeetOfFury.com is now in its 12th year. Her most recent book â€“ "The Tyranny of Nice: How Canada Crushes Freedom in the Name of Human Rights, and Why It Matters to Americans" â€“ features an introduction by Rush Limbaugh guest host Mark Steyn.

This week, Rush Limbaugh celebrated his 23rd anniversary on national radio, but his happiness was tempered by the Congressional “debt deal.”

Limbaugh offered a live “play-by-play” reaction to Obama’s victory speech, which was classic Rush (FREE audio):

The ladies of “The View” returned to their weird obsession with Rush Limbaugh, when their all-female panel rehashed old accusations and anecdotes about Limbaugh’s alleged “racism” (FREE audio).

Michael Savage

“If the left is telling you [the budget vote is] a victory for the tea party, then you know it’s a lie,” Savage told listeners after the fateful bill was passed.

He also offered a convincing history lesson, explaining why Obama is really a “Leninist” as opposed to a “Marxist” (FREE audio).

“Lenin thought that a nation could only grow more prosperous when a nation is controlled by a vanguard and elite – a people who know better than you what to do with your property,” Savage explained. “The Leninist elite would lead people to a world free of pain and poverty. There would be no more haves and have-nots or private property. Just boundless prosperity. All a nation had to do was transfer its entire wealth to Lenin’s vanguard.”

With his Ph.D. in nutritional ethnomedicine, Savage was one of the first to write about the connection between aging and antioxidants, back in the 1970s. That makes him the only radio host on the air today who could create a viable metaphor involving “free radicals.”

Savage explained that Democratic politicians and their supporters were the “free radicals” who were “devouring the body politic.” Savage’s role is as America’s antioxidant, the “Vitamin E” that will destroy free radicals and rescue the nation from its “degenerative disease”:

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity offered listeners a rare peek “backstage” this week. His Senior Producer Elisha hosted a video tour of the broadcast studio and introduced the team who make the radio show happen (FREE video).

Ann Coulter joined Sean to discuss the characterization of GOP politicians as “terrorists.” He also revealed (to her dismay): “Ann Coulter has a boyfriend!” (FREE audio).

Mark Levin

Mark Levin broadcast from “Bunker No. 2″ on Monday night, but he wasn’t satisfied with the audio quality from this remote location, so he apologized to his fans, on Facebook:

“Unfortunately, folks, the equipment we use off-site is not functioning properly. I am very sorry,” he wrote. “I will be back on the air next Monday as I owe you a better broadcast than the choppy broadcast you’ve heard today. In the meantime, we have several wonderful guest hosts sitting in. Thank you for your indulgence and keep the faith!”

Being away from the microphone didn’t stop Levin from commenting on the debt ceiling vote via Facebook, warning gravely: “If we conservatives fail, the nation is doomed. This is not a game. This is for real. The primary process exists for exactly times like this. The Republican Party is only as good as those who we elect under its banner.”

Laura Ingraham

Ingraham is a long-time supporter of Rep. Michele Bachmann, but she wasn’t convinced by Bachmann’s explanation of why she’d refused to vote to raise the debt ceiling (FREE audio).

On her blog, Ingraham castigated the New York Times’ Maureen Down for comparing tea partiers to horror movie monsters. Ingraham shot back: “First, if anyone should be wearing a hockey mask, it’s Nancy ‘Jason’ Pelosi, who stalked the American workers for years, trying to bleed them of money and freedom.”

Glenn Beck

Beck and his crew mused that MSNBC’s Chris Matthews might be going on the air drunk. Since Beck is a recovering alcoholic, and his producer worked with him during the “bad old days,” this segment is particularly funny (FREE webcam).

Beck has been studying the state of Israel as he prepares for his upcoming rally there. He told listeners this week that Israelis don’t use the expression “West Bank” and suggests we drop this biased place name (FREE webcam).

And now, from the left side of the dial …

Progressive talk radio host Randi Rhodes may not be the most balanced broadcaster out there. I don’t just mean in terms of bias, either: Tis is the same Randi Rhodes who tried to convince listeners she’d been mugged to explain why she’d been seen stumbling around the streets of Boston.

This week, she challenged Glenn Beck to a fight, as part of a weird, foul mouthed rant (FREE audio).

“See, I think they want a revolution, I really do, and if Beck’s going to be the one fighting it, I win!” she said. “I’m a girl and I can kick his a–, so, you know, and he’s like 9 feet tall! I win!”

Rhodes then declared that wealthy conservatives were “buying $200,000 guard dogs” and “personal drones” in anticipation of a “revolution.”

As Brian Maloney of Radio Equalizer fame comments, it’s the progressives like Rhodes who keep fantasizing about some imaginary right vs. left apocalypse.

Asks Maloney ominously: “What is fueling this paranoid ‘progressive’ belief that civil war is imminent? Is this something they want?”